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[sagi58]

At least I have no problem admitting it!

[myownalias]

if he was faster than Hamilton, overtake, don't sit there and whine about it!

You make it sound like it is so easy but it was far from it. Hamilton was trying to force Rosberg into the cars behind so they would overtake him and make him lose the championship BUT he had to do so in such a way that he didn't come under attack from Rosberg. By pulling away in the first part of the lap where the DRS zones are it meant that he was safe from Rosberg attacking him, this meant he could go slower in the last part of the lap where overtaking is almost impossible in an attempt to slow down Rosberg with the hope that at least two cars would get close enough to attempt an overtake. So of course Rosberg was faster because of this tactic of Hamilton but he was never close enough to try a safe overtake on Hamilton, and if he had tried to overtake Hamilton from the distance he was behind it is likely he would have caused an incident and be penalised for it, probably costing himself the championship in the process.

If Hamilton was 9 seconds slower than his ultimate pace, then Rosberg should have been able to overtake, he didn't want to take a chance which is fine, but do not moan over the radio to the team about it, asking the team to pull Hamilton into the pits allowing him to take the lead, only to give it back on the final lap if Hamilton was right behind him.

[darwin dali]

LH ignored instructions to speed up, not from his race engineer, but from team boss Paddy Lowe himself - that's as high as it can go. Thus, LH was being a bad boy - there's talk that Toto Wolff might impose some sort of penalty for his defiance.
NR played good boy asking the team to act rather than taking it in his own hands and attack LH, thereby risking a collision/DNF (remember Spain?), which the team would not have liked at all.

[sagi58]

The battle between Hamilton and Rosberg can be summed up easily by, of all things, a British idiom:

a picture is worth a thousand words:

[gdh]

A monetary penalty wouldn't do much, can't see them sitting him out of a race and putting in a jr driver as the team's goal is the Constructor's Championship. It will be interesting and sure to generate more contrversy and conspiracy theories by the snowflakes that are unable to accept his loss (borrowed that from a corvette forum pr&c poster but substituted LH for Clinton as it just seemed to fit after reading some of the conspiracy posts).

[sagi58]

I'm betting Mercedes lets this whole episode just die a natural death.
They won't penalize Hamilton in any "significant" way; but, they'll make
it look good by saying they're going to deal with this in-house... privately...

[overboost]

Maybe they could sit him out for a race or two or do something like giving Rosberg first call on strategy for the fly away races at the beginning of the season.

[gdh]

If Mercedes 2017 car is as dominant as the past 3 seasons car Merc will again prove that LH needs them more than the team needs him for his quest for more WDCs. I like LH aggressive driving style, believe that he is the faster driver on the team but if anything this yr has proven that the true star of the Mercedes team is the cars and those who designed and built them. Put Maldonato in one of them where he wouldn't feel the need to hit others and he likely would have won a WDC or more. Can only imagine if Mad Max was in one. Just having some fun with it all as after all it's only entertainment for those of us not directly associated with the sport.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Nico err New Year to all, looking fwd to testing.

[overboost]

I think that it will be over to Red Bull for 2017 and perhaps the next 3 years with Verstappen winning two wdc's and Ricciardo getting one. Rosberg wiil have been lucky to win his wdc and Hamilton unfortunate never to reach his fourth before the gravy train ran out.

gdh you are probably exaggerrating a little bit with Maldonado but I agree that any pair of the top dozen or more would have done the same as Rosberg and Hamilton in those cars. The Mercs were in a class of their own from day 1 and protected by the token rules for the last three years. Wins were guaranteed.

If Merc were to move Hamilton they probably wouldn't get much for him as the other top teams don't see Lewis as a good fit. They might manage a swap with FI for Perez, that's about it.

I am hopeful that the 2017 revamp wil revitalize F1 and save it from the scrap heap. It has been an exceptionally tedious and frustrating three years, perhaps the worst period in F1 for its lack of competitiveness and excitement. Many fans have been lost.

[overboost]

My vote is for Rosberg. Rosberg did what he had to do and did it under great stress, first with his pass on Verstappen to avoid being stuck behind the Red Bull after the pit stop, and second to coolly withstand the desperate tactics of his 'teammate' in the late stages while he was put under extreme pressure from Vettel. One misstep and it would have been all over.

Nico showed great discipline and mental strength in the final race and all season for that matter which was the big difference between him and his teammate. Hamilton fluctuated over the season and seemed un-motivated especially at the beginning of the season and later on after the summer break. Maybe his extracurricular activities took a toll on him here. Rosberg was focused for the entire season. Also Hamilton wasn't able to adapt to the new clutch and start rules as well as Rosberg was able to do as this is where Lewis cost himself many points and likely the championship.

[overboost]

LH ignored instructions to speed up, not from his race engineer, but from team boss Paddy Lowe himself - that's as high as it can go. Thus, LH was being a bad boy - there's talk that Toto Wolff might impose some sort of penalty for his defiance.
NR played good boy asking the team to act rather than taking it in his own hands and attack LH, thereby risking a collision/DNF (remember Spain?), which the team would not have liked at all.